Frank Britton, Danielle Hutchison and Justin Weaks in Theater Alliance’s Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea for which Dane Figueroa Edidi received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Choreography in a Play.

C. Stanley Photography

Dane Figueroa Edidi in Spooky Action Theater’s Last of the Whyos

K-Town Studio

In this week’s Take Ten, DANE FIGUEROA EDIDI shares an inspiring ‘in utero’ Dreamgirls experience, her passion for her own original musical Roaring, and her admiration for Marsha P. Johnson, a Black Transgender woman who “threw the first stone at Stonewall.” Catch the actor in Wig Out![1] at Studio Theatre[2] through August 20.

1) What was the first show you ever saw, and what impact did it have?

Well, when my mother was pregnant with me she went to Broadway with my aunts and saw Dreamgirls. So, that was technically my first show, but when I was a child it was either Porgy and Bess or The Wiz. All three were shows with all/primarily black cast and were one factor that helped shaped my deep investment in having Black Performers on stage and fuels a part of me that wishes to see new works written by Black Playwrights and composers being produced by theaters.

2) What was your first involvement in a theatrical production?

Mmm... I think it was in the chorus of Cosi... with my other Baltimore School for the Arts colleagues, the young artists of the Baltimore Opera Company were the principals. I have been producing my own cabarets since I was 16 however.

3) What’s your favorite play or musical, and why do you like it so much?

That is a hard question. Classically I adore Medea, high drama and she was the original “Lover and secretary.” My favorite musical has got to be my own, Roaring, because it is a story about a family of performers in the 1920s, that has no investment in tokenizing trans people by avenue of the “sad trans story” and it’s written by a Trans person.

4) What’s the worst day job you ever took?

Shade. Let me just say, I think I took many day jobs at any given time because it was what I needed at the moment. With that said, I invite managers, bosses, E.D.s etc to invest more in caring about their employees and those who are apart of their team. Any job can be joyful or a hot mess depending on how the heads of companies engage the individuals in their organizations.

The amazing artists who I get to work with every Tuesday through Sunday. The incredible loving and affirming environment we are/have been fostering along with our brilliant director, choreographer and hard working crew. I adore my new show family and baaaaby, being able to watch them work in these scenes, honey! It’s everything.

It wouldn’t be a romantic date, but it would be more of a YOU ARE BRILLIANT BIG SISTER CAN I LEARN FROM YOU type of dinner. Marsha P. Johnson, a Black Trans woman, who was also a performance artist, she threw the first stone at Stonewall and along with ancestors like Sylvia Rivera, she is one of the Mothers of the Modern LGBTQ movement. If you LGBTQIA honey, you owe her lots.

8) What is your dream role/job?

Playing Diamond Malone in my and Andrew Morrissey’s musical, Roaring, first at an Equity Regional Theater, then on Broadway.

9) If you could travel back in time, what famous production or performance would you choose to see?

Aida Walker performing Salome. Aida Walker is one of our foremothers in theater. What she and the other Black women of her generation were doing made it so I could be on stage today.

10) What advice would you give to an 8-year-old smitten by theatre / for a graduating MFA student?

Honor your gifts. If art be your path remember, this is a sacred vocation. Be kind to yourself as you learn which will be for the rest of your life and may you always know how as a conduit you are Divine.

DANE FIGUEROA EDIDI makes her Studio Theatre debut in Wig Out!. She has been seen in New York at the WOW Café Theatre in the premier of her play Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem. She is the first Trans Woman of Color to be nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for choreography of Theater Alliance’s Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea. An Advocate, she is the founder of the Inanna D Initiative and has created several arts advocacy initiatives to help combat the erasure of TGNC artists of color. In 2013, she became the first Trans Woman of Color to publish a work of fiction in DC; she released her ninth book, Incarnate, in May 2017.